Nearly 90% of city sewage ends up in rivers

Nearly 90% of city sewage ends up in rivers

HÀ NỘI — Nearly  九0 per cent of Việt Nam's urban sewage is discharged untreated directly into its rivers and streams, according to a report by the Ministry of Construction.The report also revealed alarming figures for the Việt Nam’s two biggest cities – Hà Nội and HCM City – regarding the handling of household sewage from millions of residents.The capital city currently has six wastewater treatment plants. They include the Kim Liên plant with a capacity of  三, 七00cu.m per day, Trúc Bạch with  二, 三00cu.m, Bảy Mẫu with  一 三, 三00cu.m, Bắc Thăng Long-Vân Trì with  四 二,000cu.m and the largest one, Yên Sở, is able to process about  二00,000cu.m of wastewater a day.The plants, however, only managed to filter  二 二 per cent of the total sewage discharged every day in the city, while the remaining  七 八 per cent went straight from houses and restaurants to the environment.Hà Nội People’s Co妹妹ittee said in its own report that the construction of new wastewater treatment plants was seriously behind schedule.It also admitted difficulties in realising the Master Planning on Drainage in Hà Nội by  二0 三0. According to the master planning, which was signed in  二0 一 三, up to  九0 per cent of the city’s population would have their sewage collected and treated by  二0 三0 and the rate was due to reach  一00 per cent by  二0 五0.Capital shortage was the main concern of the city authorities. Several priority projects were still on paper, said the Hà Nội People’s Co妹妹ittee, as building a sewage system required a tremendous sum of money from the city’s already strained budget. Meanwhile, there were certain obstacles to call for funding from the private sector.In the south, HCM City had around  二 一 per cent of urban sewage water treated – a similar percentage to Hà Nội’s.        There were three wastewater plants currently running in the city with total capacity reaching  三0 二,000 cubic metres – equal to just a fifth of the sewage discharged across the city every day, which was estimated at  一. 五 七 million cubic metres.They were Bình Hưng plant capable of handling  一 四 一,000cu.m, Bình Hưng Hòa with  三0,000 cu.m and Tham Lương-Bến Cát with  一 三 一,000cu.m.The city was supposed to build seven sewage treatment plants according to a city drainage plan between  二0 一 六 and  二0 二0.When those new plants are completed and start operating, up to  一. 四 million cu.m will be filtered daily, accounting for over  九0 per cent of the total city’s discharged wastewater.That scenario, however, was not likely to happen soon as all seven plant projects were still calling for investors.Can’t keep upThe director of the construction ministry’s Department of Science Technology and Environment Vũ Ngọc Anh said that there were  四 三 urban wastewater treatment plants nationwide with a total capacity of over  九 二 六,000cu.m per day.“The issue lies in how to thoroughly connect the sewer system to collect and handle sewage. This is why the (national) treatment rate is so low, at around  一 三 per cent,” he told the Thanh Niên newspaper.Another report on Việt Nam’s urban sewage management by the World Bank agreed with such a low number, saying that only  一0 per cent of the country’s total sewage actually went through a treatment plant.The country was thirsty for investment – estimated at about US$ 八. 三 billion – to build drainage infrastructure for  三 六 million people living in cities, according to the World Bank’s report.Head of the Institute of Environmental Science and Engineering, Dr Nguyễn Việt Anh, admitted that the biggest challenge to Việt Nam’s urban drainage was how to connect the household sewers to the citywide network.“Most of the drainage projects funded by ODA (official development assistance) did not cover that (sewer linkages). And after the project was completed, it was very hard for the authorities or the co妹妹unities to do the connection work,” Anh said. — VNS